1. Technical Field
The present disclosure pertains to musical instruments, and more particularly, to musical instruments having devices to monitor and locate the musical instruments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Every year over 1 million instruments are stolen from musicians and less than 3% are recovered. Even though many stolen musical instruments are unique and identifiable by some aspects, nearly all are unrecovered by the true owners. This is partially because of the ease of concealing and transporting certain musical instruments, such as guitars, violins, and the like. Furthermore, many musical instruments are very valuable, making them more prone to theft than less expensive and less available merchandise. Some collectible guitars have been sold for millions of dollars. For example, “The Strat” generated a total of 3.7 million dollars at auction. As another example, some violins have been sold for millions of dollars. The “Vieuxtemps Guarneri” sold for 18 million dollars, making it the most expensive violin in the world. Thus, some musical instruments are akin to rare art, having a constant risk of theft, except that many common musical instruments look alike and are difficult to track, which poses an even higher risk of theft because of resellability.
Once a musical instrument is stolen, it can easily and quickly be sold on the black market, to pawn shops, or through online sales and auctions. Thus, the stolen musical instrument can pass through many purchasers in a relatively short timeframe, which causes greater difficulties for the owner and authorities in finding and recovering the instrument. In many instances, a thief or purchaser of a stolen instrument will use and keep the instrument indoors and never reveal it to the public, which makes ever recovering the stolen item almost impossible. In contrast, stolen vehicles are much more visible and traceable than a stolen musical instrument because a stolen vehicle is very difficult to conceal and sell; even the parts are difficult to sell because of enhanced security measures. Such is not the case with musical instruments. Millions are stolen and few are recovered.